After another intriguing regular season on the PGA Tour, the first of three FedEx Cup Playoffs takes place at TPC Southwind featuring the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings, where the top 50 will qualify for next week’s BMW Championship.
Several big-name players are missing from this year’s Playoffs following disappointing seasons, including two-time PGA Champion Justin Thomas, former World No.1 Adam Scott, 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry and 2014 FedEx Cup winner Billy Horschel. Meanwhile, another high-profile player who misses out this year is 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship winner Will Zalatoris, who is recovering from back surgery.
Nevertheless, most of the world’s biggest names are in the field for this week’s designated event. Scottie Scheffler has been in outstanding form this year, and is currently top of the world rankings. His T23 in The Open was the first time he had finished outside the top 12 in 20 starts, and he’ll be among the favourites this week.
Immediately behind him in the world rankings is Rory McIlroy, who is in pursuit of a fourth FedEx Cup title. His form of late has been encouraging too, with seven successive top 10 finishes, including a win in the Genesis Scottish Open.
Jon Rahm is another who will expect to qualify comfortably for next week’s second tournament. The Spaniard was in scintillating form at the turn of the year and while a more inconsistent run has followed since his Masters triumph in April, a T2 at The Open sent out an ominous warning to others that he is close to his best form.
Six more of the world’s top 10 are in the field this week – Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, Brian Harman and Matt Fitzpatrick – with only LIV Golf player Cameron Smith absent.
Of those, Harman will be confident of a putting masterclass akin to that which won him The Open as he aims to go all the way to the Tour Championship for the second successive season.
Meanwhile, Homa is fourth in the FedEx Cup standings thanks largely to his wins in the Fortinet Championship and Farmers Insurance Open and runner-up in the Genesis Invitational. He will be hopeful he can take advantage of that strong position to progress to the BMW Championship.
Hovland also has a recent PGA Tour win, in The Memorial Tournament in June, and will head into the Playoffs after a T13 at The Open.
Just outside the top 10, but fifth in the FedEx Cup standings, is Wyndham Clark, and he’ll be hoping produce another solid performance after his wins in the Wells Fargo Championship and US Open.
Elsewhere, Tony Finau won the first FedEx Cup Playoff in 2021, The Northern Trust, and he will hope for a similarly encouraging performance this week. Other players with a history of success in the FedEx Cup Playoffs are Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who have each won the FedEx Cup and will hope to cement strong positions heading into the BMW Championship.
Elswhere, Lucas Glover won last week’s Wyndham Championship to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and he will be full of confidence heading into this week's tournament.
As one of the PGA Tour’s designated events, the FedEx St. Jude Championship has a $20m purse, of which the winner will claim $3.6m. Below is the field for the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind.
FedEx St. Jude Championship Field
- An, Byeong Hun
- Bradley, Keegan
- Buckley, Hayden
- Burns, Sam
- Cantlay, Patrick
- Clark, Wyndham
- Cole, Eric
- Conners, Corey
- Davis, Cam
- Day, Jason
- Detry, Thomas
- English, Harris
- Finau, Tony
- Fitzpatrick, Matt
- Fleetwood, Tommy
- Fowler, Rickie
- Glover, Lucas
- Griffin, Ben
- Grillo, Emiliano
- Hadwin, Adam
- Hardy, Nick
- Harman, Brian
- Hatton, Tyrrell
- Henley, Russell
- Hodges, Lee
- Hoge, Tom
- Homa, Max
- Hossler, Beau
- Hovland, Viktor
- Hubbard, Mark
- Hughes, Mackenzie
- Im, Sungjae
- Jaeger, Stephan
- Kim, Si Woo
- Kim, Tom
- Kirk, Chris
- Kitayama, Kurt
- Kuchar, Matt
- Matsuyama, Hideki
- McCarthy, Denny
- McIlroy, Rory
- Mitchell, Keith
- Montgomery, Taylor
- Moore, Taylor
- Morikawa, Collin
- NeSmith, Matt
- Norrman, Vincent
- Poston, J.T.
- Power, Seamus
- Putnam, Andrew
- Rahm, Jon
- Rai, Aaron
- Riley, Davis
- Rodgers, Patrick
- Rose, Justin
- Ryder, Sam
- Schauffele, Xander
- Scheffler, Scottie
- Schenk, Adam
- Smalley, Alex
- Spaun, J.J.
- Spieth, Jordan
- Stevens, Sam
- Straka, Sepp
- Svensson, Adam
- Taylor, Nick
- Theegala, Sahith
- Todd, Brendon
- Wu, Brandon
- Young, Cameron
What Is The Purse For The FedEx St. Jude Championship?
As one of the PGA Tour's designated events, a purse of $20m is on offer, with the winner claiming a sizeable $3.6m. That's in contrast to the 2022 tournament, which had a $15m purse and $2.7m for the victor.
Who Made The FedEx Cup Playoffs?
Most of the world's best players qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, including World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, Masters champion Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy, who won the 2022 FedEx Cup. Several big names have failed to qualify, though, including Justin Thomas, Adam Scott and Billy Horschel.
